Fracking foes press eastern Boulder County lawmakers for action

State Rep. elect Mike Foote, from left, speaks as State Sen. elect Matt Jones and state Rep. Jonathan Singer listen at a town hall meeting, Tuesday at Abbondonza Pizzeria in Longmont.
(
Matthew Jonas
)

LONGMONT -- A number of Longmont-area residents' concerns about the oil and gas industry's intent to continue using the process of fracking in drilling wells wound up dominating much of a trio of state lawmakers' Tuesday night town hall meeting.

Sen.-elect Matt Jones, Rep.-elect Mike Foote and Rep. Jonathan Singer came prepared to review some of the bills they plan to introduce in the 2013 legislative session that begins today.

But many of the more than 40 people who showed up for Tuesday's meeting urged those eastern Boulder County lawmakers to take the lead in trying to enact a statewide ban -- or to push a law that would at least impose a temporary statewide moratorium -- on hydraulic fracturing, the process of injecting a mixture of sand, water and chemicals to release underground oil and natural gas deposits.

Jones, D-Louisville, Foote, D-Lafayette, and Singer, D-Longmont, all indicated they expect either to introduce bills of their own, or to work with other lawmakers carrying measures intended to help ensure the health and safety of people living or working or going to school near where such wells are drilled.

Singer, for example, told the meeting-goers who'd gathered for the lawmakers' pre-session preview at Abbondanza Pizzeria that he intends to sponsor some sort of bill dealing with the fracking issue, particularly since he represents much of the geographic area of Longmont, a city where a majority of voters in December approved a municipal charter amendment to ban that drilling procedure within its boundaries.

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"I have a responsibility," Singer said, to reflect and represent the will of that community.

But Singer said he's also waiting to see what kinds of new drilling regulations the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission approves before proceeding with drafting his own proposed state law.

Foote said about fracking issues: "I intend, as well, to be very active in that area."

In crafting legislation, "we want to make sure we're not just reacting to the oil and gas industry," Foote said. He said lawmakers should be as proactive as possible in protecting people's health and safety, and that the oil and gas industry should be required to provide the burden of proof that the practices it wants to use are safe.

Last year, Jones tried unsuccessfully to gain passage of a bill that would have emphasized local governments' land-use authority over some aspects of oil and gas drilling. He said after Tuesday night's meeting that he hasn't decided whether to try that approach again.

"I want to pick something that does something," Jones said.

Kaye Fissinger, one of the anti-fracking activists at Tuesday's meeting, told the lawmakers: "We want you to stand up to the oil and gas man who happens to sit in the governor's chair," referring to Gov. John Hickenlooper, a onetime petroleum geologist.

"Gov. Hickenlooper did not get you elected," Fissinger told Foote, Jones and Singer. "We did."

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